Cott gets first DAP project

A $25 million apartment project near the Cottesloe Civic Centre has won approval to go ahead, despite objections from the local council.

The 12-apartment project, put forward by Australian Development Capital, is the first in Cottesloe to be evaluated by a development assessment panel, and was given the green light to proceed last week.

But that was after Town of Cottesloe planning officers recommended the metropolitan west DAP refuse the application, on the grounds that the bulk and scale of the two-storey project would be inappropriate for the area and would negatively affect views from the public open space at the civic centre.

That recommendation came despite there already being two-storey apartment structures on the site, at 15 to 19 Overton Gardens, which were originally built in the 1950s.

The other concern raised by the Cottesloe council was the potential impact on the heritage values of the civic centre from the new development.

Australian Development Capital director Rod Hamersley told Business News the company had worked with the council since October last year when it bought the site, but had been unable to agree on a development outcome.

“Unfortunately it was more of a challenging process than what we were hoping for,” Mr Hamersley said.

“The council had their view on the privacy issues regarding the civic centre, essentially trying to protect the views.

“Whereas the real heritage concern from the state Heritage Council was mainly around the retaining wall, which is heritage listed.

“So we set the development back from the wall and we’re going to do some work to upgrade it as well.”

He said the project’s design, by Banham Architects, was the deciding factor at the DAP meeting.

“The independent members who sat on the DAP were all very impressed with the design and they all thought it was going to be a positive outcome for the town and it wouldn’t have any adverse effect on any of our neighbours, including the Town of Cottesloe with the civic centre,” Mr Hamersley said.

“There are obviously some height sensitivities when it comes to the Town of Cottesloe, which are well publicised, and there were some pretty stringent height parameters that we had to work within.

“But it’s two-storey at the end of the day; it’s not controversial in terms of the height that’s going up and the bulk and scale is, we think, commensurate with the neighbouring developments.”

Mr Hamersley also said the public consultation process had been especially unique, with not a single complaint received in response to 59 notifications sent out to residents of nearby homes.

“Certainly there were people that came in and viewed the plans, but I think everyone is starting to acknowledge that particular pocket of Cottesloe needs some new development,” he said.